LogFAQs > #923888421

Di Gi Charat Theater Vol. 1 (of 2)
By: Yuki Kiriga
Original Concept: Koge-Donbo

Hey, we've got continuity this time, sorta! Dejiko and Rabi blow up the store while fighting, so Mr. Manager sends them on a quest to retrieve the Treasure of Prosperity to rebuild the store. But they also need to still bring in some money while they're doing that. We have a story where Dejiko winds up working at a bakery to pay off all the food she ate- she tries to sabotage the place so Gamers can take over the building, but it backfires and the store becomes really popular. We also investigate a shrine and deal with a possessed Rabi. After that we switch to a 4koma format and do some AU silliness. I'm a sucker for 4-panel (Azumanga Daioh you may recall is my all-time fave and established my taste pretty well in the early days) as well as alternate settings, so that's up my alley. You've got school (Dejiko is the transfer student), Edo Japan (Dejiko and Gema get in trouble for prizefighting), and pirates (which has the best costumes obv).

Back to the main story, sorta. We're having a picnic when Puchiko has a little isekai adventure with weird versions of Dejiko and Rabi trying to adopt and detain her. Next up, we accidentally summon the Black Gema Gang (I think?) from another dimension, and face off in a battle of puns off of Dejiko's signature "Laser Eye Beam." The localizers tried. The Black Gema stick around to compete in a beauty pageant next episode- Puchiko and Piyoko win while they're all fighting. And hey continuity, we win tickets to a hot spring resort, setting up the next chapter! Not as fanservicey as it could have been, which is for the best since I think they're 10, 5, and...14? Course two of them are aliens but still. Anyway, a fun one where they keep actively avoiding hints to the treasure so they can keep hanging out at the resort.

...And then there's a murder mystery at a haunted inn! Except for the part where nobody is actually dead but we're still ON THE CASE. We do manage to parody several mystery and ghost tropes at the same time, but alas my murder mystery appetite remains unsated from Descendants of Darkness. Really just gotta bite the bullet and get all 230948209348 volumes of Detective Conan at some point.

More 4koma, in which Gema dates some balloons. Did I mention he's a circle with a face and arms? I'm mentioning it now. We also get a Journey to the West parody. One of these days I need to actually read(?) the original since everything references it. Also Momotarou. Anyway we also get a sentai bit! And finally a hospital/nurse one.

Rabi goes on a pretty dang cute date with her fanboy while Dejiko tries to stalk them, and that's it for this one's main body. We also get a garden variety couple pages of the author talking to us (she has pets!) and paper dolls for photocopying! That's a new one on me. Also a cardlist for a Di Gi Charat CCG? O_o I appear to be missing out on Wrestler Rabi. I will have to track down this max rarity card from a game I didn't know existed that probably never came to the US but was mentioned in this book from about 2004.

My rating: 8/10
A bit more coherent than the previous iteration (...but not by much) and with a consistently appealing artstyle. I like the non-chibi art in particular but that doesn't show up often. Good stuff.
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Tone yo' flab